Missing arts council money prompts new state standards

Misplaced money at the Houma Regional Arts Council has led to new accountability standards for arts councils across the state, said Jacques Berry, spokesman for the lieutenant governor's office.

Mary KilpatrickStaff Writer

Misplaced money at the Houma Regional Arts Council has led to new accountability standards for arts councils across the state, said Jacques Berry, spokesman for the lieutenant governor's office. About $40,000 of state money administered by the Houma Regional Arts Council to support the arts was reported missing last month instead of being sent to local arts groups. State officials said they are not sure where it was spent and are investigating. Arts councils across the state will now have to produce proof that money has cleared their accounts for all grant payments, Berry said."We will require reports on a much more frequent basis," he said, to ensure state Division of the Arts staffers "have an ongoing idea" of how arts councils handle the money.Previously, each arts council had to submit one report a year, Berry said.The missing money came from the state's taxpayer-supported Decentralized Arts Fund. The state split $1.5 million in grants between the nine arts councils in Louisiana last year, Berry said. Money was then given through the Houma council to cultural centers in Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. John, St. James and St. Charles parishes to help spread art awareness throughout the state, said Cathy Hernandez, Division of the Arts executive director. The money was mismanaged and mixed into the Houma council's general operating account, Arts Council interim treasurer Joe Kopfler said. It was used to pay office expenses such as staff salaries and the phone bill. Kopfler, who was appointed days after the discovery, said the missing money caught most of the arts council's board members off-guard — mostly because they seldom met.Glenda Toups, Houma Regional Arts Council executive director, was fired Sept. 18, Kopfler said.Hernandez met Wednesday in Houma with local arts groups that were to receive the grants and assured them they will get their money from the state by December. The Houma council received $54,000 to give out to arts organizations this year.The council got 75 percent of that — $40,000 — at the beginning of the 2013 fiscal year that began July 1, 2012, and was supposed to get 25 percent on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.When the group didn't submit an internal audit of its finances to the Legislative Auditor's Office by June 30, it was flagged to not receive the remaining 25 percent."The state intends to make good before the end of the year," Hernandez said.Because the arts council money remains missing, it will be replaced with state arts budget revenue, Berry said.The Arts Council of Greater New Orleans will administer the grants in 2014, and it's uncertain if the Houma Regional Arts Council will take over in 2015. Members of the New Orleans staff accompanied Hernandez to Houma and tried to ease any worries of a repeat episode."We look forward to working in this community and helping with the administrating the DAF grants," Artist Services Manager Joycelyn Reynolds said. "We have always paid our grantees."